Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerWith an aerial photo of the crime scene behind him, Assistant Essex County prosecutor Thomas McTigue points an accusatory finger at Rodolfo Godinez as he presents his closing arguments in Godinez's trial this afternoon at the Essex County Courthouse. NEWARK — During his closing statement, the assistant prosecutor in the Newark schoolyard trial said one of the defendants was a willing participant in the crime, which he dubbed a “massacre of innocence.”

For more than two-and-a-half hours, Thomas McTigue paced before a packed courtroom and 16 jury members – which includes four alternates – as he reviewed graphic autopsy photos and held a blood-stained machete he says was used on Aug. 4, 2007.

On that night, Iofemi Hightower, 19, Dashon Harvey, 20, and Terrance Aeriel, 18, were shot execution-style. Terrance’s sister, Natasha, now 22, was also shot but survived.

Rodolfo Godinez, one of six defendants charged in connection with the grisly homicides, has pleaded not guilty to several counts of robbery, murder and weapons charges. He admits he was present when the killings occurred but he says he did not participate in the violence and could not stop it.

As he held up a machete next to Hightower’s autopsy photo, McTigue said he disagreed.

McTigue also noted that Godinez admitted in a taped statement to police that he was a gang member of MS-13 and that the killings may have been a way to initiate one of the other charged defendants. He argued Godinez helped draw the other accused suspects to the schoolyard, near Mount Vernon School, to commit the killings.

“Was there some pre-planning? Of course there was,” McTigue said. “There were phone calls. You don’t just wander off the street into that schoolyard…Somebody had to spot your target for you…I submit to you it was Rodolfo Godinez.”

Doctor testifies in schoolyard slaying caseDr. Lyla Perez testifies about the wounds to shooting victim Dashon Harvey during the trial of Rodolfo Godinez at the Essex County Courthouse in Newark. Godinez is charged with the murder of three young people in a Newark schoolyard.
Video by John O'Boyle